Tag: timeline

There has always been a time in everyone’s life which makes you think, ‘If only time machines were invented’. The moment when your costly phone fell down, shattering to pieces or when you accidently sent an unwanted message to your teacher. Between these moments you simply stand by wishing there was some way to turn time around. The situation is more pronounced in the world of media and communication where precision means business. A simple misprint or Typo in your daily newspaper can turn Obama into Osama! Printing an apology or retraction in situations as these is inevitable. Even in the world of digital media such situations were considered to be very grave. A wrong news flash or e-mailer is considered detrimental for the rapport of the organization.

With Facebook slowly turning out to be an important factor in the world of media, commanding a reach which surpasses that of any other medium the risk of damage by any error would be huge. However thanks to its features of editing and scheduling posts, the risk has been minimized to a great extent. Facebook can also be named as the new media time machine. Although organizations still need to be careful about what they share or update, the risk of mistake going viral is greatly diminished by its editing features. Facebook allows users to edit posts they have already made thus enabling them to correct errors. Any mistake corrected within few minutes of being posted is less likely to be viewed by a lot of people. In addition to this, the time on the comment is changed to correspond to most recent edit. However a friend or fan that originally received a notification about the post will not receive another notification about the edit.

Another unique feature of Facebook which has helped users master time is ‘Scheduling’. This allows users to schedule posts at a later date and time. Now you don’t need to log in from your vacation or during weekend to post a news or update. Just schedule all your posts in advance and forget about it. It also allows users to backdate a post.

Facebook is an important platform for brand management for companies. It gives them access to large number of viewers and great flexibility in terms of reach and audience. So it can prove detrimental for image of the brand if mistakes and errors are not taken care of before they go viral. These features of Facebook provide them breathing space to a certain extent giving them a certain level of control over actions of users.

With the world of social media becoming more complicated, what features are in store for us and how these changes are going to affect and revolutionize communication is yet to be speculated.